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Despite 200-300 incidents of spousal abuse, B.C. man will be out of jail in 17 months

Hands on prison bars

A Metro Vancouver man who beat his wife between 200 and 300 times over 25 years will spend only four years in prison, the Vancouver Province reports.

But he'll be out even sooner than that because of the time he spent in custody before sentencing.

And, because the net sentence of 17 months falls below the two-year minimum for post-release supervision, he cannot be subject to an order that he be monitored in the community for 10 years after getting out of jail.

Despite years of public education and consciousness-raising, family violence remains a major problem in Canada. A B.C. Coroners Service report last year found women were eight times more likely than men to be killed by their spouse or romantic partner, the Indo-Canadian Voice reported.

A 2012 Statistics Canada report on family violence shows spousal violence remains under-reported to police, with the rate actually dropping in 2009 to 22 per cent from 28 per cent in 2004.

Which brings us to the case of fifty-four-year-old Jaswant Singh Dhaliwal. He was convicted of only 13 counts in all last year, though he assaulted his wife regularly starting in the early 1980s.

The Crown went to B.C. Supreme Court to have him declared a long-term offender, which would have increased the amount of post-release supervision.

[ Related: Violent deaths spotlighting domestic violence, says council ]

But in a ruling recently posted on the court's web site, Justice Murray Blok rejected the Crown's application for consecutive jail sentences on the 13 counts, adding up to 7 1/2 years in prison. He ruled the sentences should be served concurrently and with 31 months credit for time spent in pre-sentence custody at a rate of 1.5 to 1, he would be free in 17 months.

Dhaliwal also received three years probation, was ordered to provide a DNA sample and was ordered to stay away from his ex-wife, identified only as P.D., and her second husband.

The court heard Dhaliwal was a heavy drinker and beat P.D., a mother of three, regularly, particularly after 1991 following one of their many temporary separations, the Province said.

"From that time until the time of final separation in 2006, Mr. Dhaliwal assaulted his wife every three or four weeks at minimum," Blok recounted in his judgment.

"Mr. Dhaliwal was a heavy drinker on weekends. Usually, the assaults took place on these weekends but the victim said that there were at least two assaults that took place when he was sober.

"Based on the frequency of the assaults, it was estimated that Mr. Dhaliwal assaulted his wife 200 to 300 times during the course of their relationship."

The beatings often caused injuries that needed surgery to repair, including a broken nose. In another, Dhaliwal kicked P.D. in the stomach when she was pregnant, and in yet another attack kicked her in the lower back and thigh while wearing steel-toed boots. In another assault, he kicked her as she came up the stairs, causing her to fall to the bottom.

One of the counts involved Dhaliwal approaching P.D. with an axe. Only "vigorous physical intervention" by the couple's two sons prevented him from attacking her with it, Blok said. In another instance, Dhaliwal broke a chair over his wife's head, breaking her wrist as she tried to shield herself.

One count rolled together a number of "simple assaults" between 1988 and 2005, including an instance where Dhaliwal sawed off the door knob of a locked bedroom door to get at his cowering wife, and another where he hit her and pulled her hair so hard that it came off the back of her scalp, the judge said.

The Crown pushed for long-term offender status based on the fact Dhaliwal continued to offend even after he and P.D. separated in 2006 and were divorced the following year, after which she remarried. He was convicted previously of multiple breaches of restraining and protective orders and jailed for uttering threats against P.D. and her new husband.

A psychiatrist who assessed Dhaliwal found he suffered from no major mental illness but had a serious problem coming to terms with his alcoholism. He also possessed "a strong patriarchal view of the world, and he asserted several times that he was aligned with his version of Punjabi values and not with the values of general Canadian society."

[ Related: Book condoning abuse includes letter from MPP Yasir Naqvi ]

Dhaliwal felt his parents had spoiled his wife and made her too independent "and Mr. Dhaliwal indicated that he should have been more controlling and restrictive of his wife," the ruling recounted.

The psychiatrist concluded Dhaliwal should serve time in the federal corrections system because it has more resources and allows a greater variety of conditions to be imposed on release than the provincial system.

The Crown argued Dhaliwal posed a substantial risk to re-offend and should be labelled a long-term offender.

But his lawyer said Dhaliwal has no intention of contacting his ex-wife and realizes most of his problems are alcohol-related. He has not had a drink since he was taken into custody in August 2011 and would seek help on release to ensure he doesn't relapse.

He also argued that despite regularly assaulting P.D. over decades, the individual beatings themselves, while inexcusable, were not prolonged and stopped after 2005.

Defence council asked for a sentence of no more than 3 1/2 years, not including credit for time served.

Blok essentially accepted the defence position, saying he could not impose a longer sentence just so Dhaliwal would qualify for long-term offender status. Yet he agreed with the psychiatrist that Dhaliwal had little insight into his problems and was not a strong candidate for rehabilitation.

Still, Blok determined that a four-year sentence, less credit for time served, was appropriate.